Portlaoise councillor seeks meeting with minister after 'harrowing' nursing home report
Admissions to the Portlaoise nursing home have been halted by HIQA
A PORTLAOISE councillor has requested a meeting with Minister of State for Older People Kieran O’Donnell, after shocking revelations about the treatment of elderly residents in a local nursing home.
Veteran Fianna Fáil councillor Catherine Fitzgerald described scenes recorded at The Residence nursing home as ‘harrowing’, following last night’s RTÉ Investigates programme.
In a social media post today, Cllr Fitzgerald said: ‘Following on from the distressing and harrowing scenes we saw on last night’s programme on The Residence in Portlaoise, I have requested a meeting with Minister Kieran O’Donnell, Minister for Older People and Housing. I’ve also asked for HIQA representatives to attend.'
A former chairperson of Laois Co Council, she added: ‘I’ve a lot of questions I’d like to get answered. Not least following up from today’s revelation that HIQA had stopped admissions months ago. Did the HSE pay their bill?’
A number of other Laois politicians, including Independent TD Brian Stanley, Fianna Fáil TD Seán Fleming, Fine Gael TD Willie Aird and Sinn Féin senator Maria McCormack have also issued statements condemning the treatment of elderly and vulnerable residents.
Nursing home operator Emeis Ireland, which also runs Kilminchy Lodge Nursing Home in Portlaoise, confirmed that it has begun a review of all its centres across the country. The company has 27 nursing homes nationwide, providing 2,400 beds.
The operators issued an apology to elderly residents and their families, amid distress and anger over the appalling treatment at The Residence and a Dublin nursing home exposed in the RTÉ programme.
Emeis Ireland said that it ‘apologises unequivocally’ to all residents and their families for the ‘suffering and distress’ experienced at The Residence home on Harpur’s Lane.
The nursing home operator also admitted that the findings in the RTÉ programme were ‘deeply distressing, wholly unjustifiable and entirely unacceptable’.
Undercover RTÉ reporters recorded distressing incidents at The Residence in Portlaoise and a Dublin nursing home, both run by the Emeis group.
Chronic staffing and equipment shortages were revealed in Portlaoise, where incontinence pads were rationed, residents were left soaking in urine and were moved in a rough manner without the obligatory hoists.
In particularly upsetting scenes at The Residence, a woman fell from her chair and was left lying helpless on a sitting room floor for some time, because no staff were available. In another disturbing incident, a woman with dementia was left crying out for help for a considerable time at night, because of a shortage of staff.
The three storey purpose-built nursing home at The Maltings, which opened less than two years ago, failed 10 regulations in a HIQA report last April and new admissions were suspended.
